Today I treated myself to a trip to one of my favorite nurseries, The Marina Garden Center, and bought a few more herbs to add to my culinary herb garden in the backyard. In fact, it has turned from being just a culinary herb garden into a combination medicinal / culinary/ it-smells-good herb garden. The new additions include:
Tuscan Upright Blue Rosemary
Sweet Lavender
Bergamot
English Thyme
Purple Sage
Variegated Sage (it has yellow edges around the gray-green leaves)
and French Tarragon
I also planted a few things from seed (soooo late, I know, but we have long seasons, so we can get away with it here in Southern California):
Big Leaf Genovese Basil
Curly Parsley
Flat Leaf Italian Parsley
Cilantro
Lamb’s Ears
I know that last one is sort of like the song from Sesame Street, “one of these kids is doin’ his own thing,” but I love how soft and fuzzy Lamb’s Ears are and I since I planted Bergamot strictly for the smell, there was every reason to include an herb simply for its feel.
Why are herbs so alluring? There is something so romantic about them. Maybe it’s because I’m reading a third book from Under the Tuscan Sun’s Frances Mayes that inspires such romantic daydreams about dining outdoors on a balmy summer evening with the scent of night blooming jasmine and fragrant herbs filling the night and garnishing the table. As I placed the Bergamot in my cardboard box today, I realized after a few minutes that I had been standing completely still, lost in a fantasy of taking a hot bath with a handful of bergamot leaves floating in the water. I could wax rhapsodic all day about this. I’m not very girly, but when it comes to this stuff, I cave.
Do you have a favorite way to use any of the herbs mentioned above? Culinary or medicinal or otherwise. Do tell.
